What to do with flashcards?

     Flashcards are inevitable for all levels to teach vocabulary, phrases, and anything in that matter!

    Hello everyone and welcome back. I decided to post some activities that can be done by using flashcards in classrooms. Continue reading for more.

    As you might already know that flashcards usually have two sides. On one side you get the picture on the other you have the word, the meaning, or the translation of the shown material in the front. I don't prefer to use flashcards that have a translation to L1 since the whole point of "the flashcard" is thrown away with this approach. You supposed to provoke the meaning by showing it through pictures or drawings. And when you turn the card you want to see how it's written, maybe (for higher levels) they might have phonological knowledge and maybe they have the meaning of the phrase or verb. 

    Anyways. These things are quite important and I use them with all levels to present the vocabulary.

1) Presenting Vocabulary

This is the core aim of a flashcard. You show the picture and learners are trying to guess the word or phrase. This can be great for animals, fruits and vegetables, clothes, etc. You may have a more specific set of vocabulary like jewelry, "What's in my suitcase for vacation?", kitchen supplies, etc. You have millions of materials on the internet.

    You can create your own flashcards on Cram or Quizlet. 

I bought these kids' toys today. They were very cheap. They are magnetic. They are not exactly flashcards but still, they will be used as flashcards :) 

Here is the link if you want to buy it. (Not affiliated)

    Or you can go old school -if you are using Microsoft- on Word or Powerpoint. On PP, you can create slides then while printing you can minimize them on handout mode to cut and glue after easily. 

    I usually get my flashcards from the British Council. They have a lot of flashcards. They have uncolored versions which is another amazing opportunity for Very young and young learners to practice in class. They can cut and color them at the class, while you're guiding them with the colors. "What color is a tomato?" "What color is an apple?"

2) Receptive activities: Bring/Find/Grab/Show Games

    These activities come before productive activities. They are done after the presentation of the material and they provide further comprehension for learners. 

    These activities depend on your group size. You can provide each student with a set of flashcards or each pair or group can have one set. 

    Once in my class, I photocopied food flashcards for each student (8 students in total). They colored them in a given time (15 minutes). Then I asked them "Show me the hamburger!" "Show me the pasta!" You can do the same in a more open space (maybe moving the furniture in class). "Bring me the cake!" and everyone will run to the board or to you with the flashcard in hand. You might change your location to make it more moving. Students LOVE these kinds of activities. This can keep them busy for 5-10 minutes. You can do show me first then go on with bring me :) The possibilities are endless.

These are the ones that my students made.

3) Productive Activities 

    Productive activities allow learners to practice a given item in a freer way.

    Running dictations are one of my favorite activities. You pair or group the students first. One is the writer when the other is running to the board or desk (whatever you put your material) and remember the sentence, word, etc, and runs back to dictate it to his/her friend. They can rotate between the roles if needed. We can talk more about running dictation later in another post. 

    You can put some flashcards in order and ask students to write the names of -let's say- furniture they see in a specific period of time. You can give 10 words. One student can run for the first five words while the other is writing and visa versa. You must set a time limit or it would last more than 5-10 minutes (Been there done that :) In the end, the group which finished first and wrote words correctly can get a star. You can do this for 3 rounds and the group who gets more stars can have a sticker or pick that day's game.

    What's missing? is another great activity that students like to play. For this activity, you need any kind of flashcards. Again, in pairs, students lay all the flashcards on the table (max 7-8). One student says "Close your eyes." and picks one or more flashcards and hides them in his/her hand. Then says "Open your eyes. What's missing?" That student tries to find the missing flashcard. It's a great game for students to remember and practice pronunciation. When I did this with my students for the first time, I wrote down the commands on the board because I observed that they were giving them in Turkish. Don't forget to model the activity with one student to show how it's done.

    Charades are another great example. One student takes a card and puts it on his/her head without looking at it. Other students try to explain the word. You particularly don't need flashcards for this. However, for lower levels, they can give a lot of clues. Students can see the color, shape, etc. Nowadays, you don't need any equipment for this. There is an app called Charades! that would work amazingly in any classroom.

    Another game I love playing is Taboo. You probably know this game already but I just want to make a quick reminder. You need special cards for this with forbidden words. However, I play this with lower-level students without giving any forbidden words. I use the cards I have with the Turkish transition on the back. My adult students love playing this. We have a lot of fun! Again, there are a lot of apps for this like TabuGo!  Try these out in the classroom.

    I'm sure there are a lot of activities that can be made with flashcards. These are the ones that I know and I practiced in my classrooms. Please comment down below for more ideas and tell me if you used mine! Don't forget to check my blog for more info like this. See you soon!